Costa Rica
In January of 2020, a group of Keuka College students, including myself traveled south to Central America to Costa Rica for one week. For this trip, focused on absorbing as much of the culture and lifestyle as we could. It was a new experience for me, going to a Latin American country. It was my first time and it is by far the most memorable. It is through the unforgettable moments that shaped new perspectives on friendship, nature, and language.
Friends near and far
This trip was combined with four other schools from across the USA and I made friends with nearly all of them. I value new relationships and the chance to learn from each other. This trip brought the most eye opening lessons including what friendship means, especially what it means to me.
I feel as though I have been enlightened to what it is to have a connection between people and to engage in conversations not bound by political views through this trip. It was an experience of real living with strangers who became some of my closest friends.
Pictured: Keuka college students as well as students from other schools.
Flora and Fauna
A vital part of Costa Rica is their biodiversity. During our stay, we caught a glimpse of their diverse nature and wildlife. We got to have up close encounters with some of their most iconic creatures as well as their wide range of environments.
Through this experience, I built a deeper passion for nature and a stronger love for ecotourism which helps protect wildlife and the natural world. It wasn't just a good sight to see Being so surrounded in nature made it feel like a spiritual encounter with creation where there was a wilder sense of life; I am not the only living being in this world. Humans are not the only living being.
Pictured: La Fortuna Waterfalls, Arenal Volcano, Monterverde Cloudforest, Playa Hermosa, Manuel Antonio State Park (other beaches), and a few other sights.
Real jungle, not a concrete jungle
The beautiful biodiversity creates the most incredible views. It was so refreshing to get away from modern civilization where everything is made by man or designed by man. Everyone says that college is the time to explore the world and discover ourselves, and there is no better way to do that than go somewhere new.
Growing up in a heavily populated area, with cement buildings and pavement on every corner, fields of corn, orchards of different nuts, and constant development almost chokes out the natural world. It creates this idea of this is the norm; this is what the world looks like. That couldn't be more absurd.
As the pictures show, there is more than man-made civilization. There is this freeing and limitless wilderness in the world. This is someone's norm and it could be my norm.